Letters to the editor: Dec. 23

Longer trucks are safe

The Dec. 9 editorial, “Uneasy Rider: No to longer trucks,” left readers with the less-than-accurate impression that a measure to make freight trucking more efficient hasn’t been thoroughly studied, and that it skirted the legislative process. That’s untrue.

The U.S. House approved a modest five-foot extension in the length of twin 28-foot trailers because it will eliminate 6.6 million truck trips and prevent over 900 truck-related accidents annually.

Over the next decade, twin-trailer traffic will increase by an estimated 40 percent, primarily because of Internet shopping. The need to avert this congestion is a major reason Congressman Hal Rogers relied on regular order to usher this reasonable provision through the House.

Sign Up and Save

According to federal data, nearly two-thirds of all serious crashes involving large trucks aren’t the fault of the professional truck driver involved.

As for twin trailers, they have a lower accident rate than single trailers. They have been thoroughly studied by government, academics and in real-world scenarios. In the largest pilot program of its kind begun five years ago on the third-busiest toll road, the Florida Turnpike, they have accumulated nearly 1.5 million accident-free miles.

This proposal will make highways safer by reducing the number of large trucks while meeting growing demand.

Jamie Fiepke

President/CEO, Kentucky Trucking Assoc.

Singer a credit to Ky.

Three cheers for, and congratulations to, The Voice winner Jordan Smith for bringing a positive, beautiful, victory home to the people of Kentucky and the nation. Unlike the national embarrassment brought on us by that county clerk.

Irvine Jones

Danville

Angling for rate hike

Thank you so much the wonderful propaganda piece from Kentucky American Water on Dec. 7. Obviously, the company has started its soft attempt to brainwash customers prior to its next rate hike request. I regret the Herald-Leader did not see through a so thinly veiled attempt at persuading the public how wonderful and proactive it is and how it needs to raise our rates to provide us affordable water.

Lawrence Twain

Lexington

Stop abusers from breeding

I’m responding to the article about the abused children in Kentucky. I’m sure the many of these children die because of alcohol- and drug-impaired parents. I constantly hear of the enormous numbers of drug addict girls having baby after baby, which explains all the children in foster homes. My question is why are they being allowed to have children in the first place.

They have them in order to get money from our government. This is an epidemic in Kentucky. I don't feel anyone who chooses alcohol or drugs before their children should be allowed to breed anymore. I feel if a person is proven to be addicted and has failed to comply with rehabilitation and cleaned up, there should be either a tubal ligation or vasectomy to stop them from bringing helpless babies into the world for others to care for. This needs to stop for the safety of the children.

Mary Haggard

Winchester

McConnell wrong on climate

A comment on Sen. Mitch McConnell’s Dec. 3 op-ed, “Obama’s climate plan has very short life expectancy”:

McConnell says don’t bother doing anything about global warming. Keep on polluting because everyone else does. Since he believes in leaving science to the scientists he probably missed the news that every year brings another record high average global temperature. Those warmer temperatures are melting every glacier on Earth.

He should organize a trip with the entire Republican congressional delegation to Glacier National Park. Eighty percent of the glaciers in the park have already melted and the rest will be gone in 20 years or so. As a result, the park will need a new name. Since Republicans want to name everything after Ronald Reagan they could re-name the park after him.

In response to the second Arab oil embargo in 1979 President Jimmy Carter installed solar panels on the roof of the White House to encourage Americans to conserve energy. In the 1980 presidential election Reagan insisted that the free market and corporate self-interest should determine energy consumption. Reagan won and the first thing he did was remove those solar panels. The Republicans could put up a plaque in the glacierless park in honor of Reagan’s decision to remove the solar panels and hasten global warming.

Kevin Kline

Lexington

Proud of liberal views

Recent letters have me contemplating my position. Since I applaud Democratic efforts to enforce EPA regulations that provide clean air and unpolluted water to the children of those “God-fearing working people” that one letter writer claims we disrespect and disdain, I guess that aligns me with his “arrogant academic socialists.”

I also agree with Democratic leaders who are trying to raise the minimum wage to an amount that might allow hourly workers to feed and clothe their families, and I wholeheartedly support the leaders whose concerns about the health care of low income families inspired them to provide affordable health insurance for all citizens.

As a liberal Democrat who supports the Supreme Court ruling that all citizens have the right to marry, I don’t fit in with “good Christians” like clerk Kim Davis and Gov. Matt Bevin. In spite of another letter writer’s modest proposal, I don’t think I’m martyr material, and I’m doomed to be one of the wicked survivors. Oh well, I’m old and skinny, and the lions would probably spit me out.

Shirley Baechtold

Richmond

Government interference

It’s a shame that we in Johnson County had to remove a religious saying from a school Christmas play. This country was built on fairness and religious issues. Now, we have Matt Sharp, an attorney for the Alliance Defending Freedom, involved and it could turn out like a Kim Davis situation, with us being the laughingstock of this episode.

If anyone doesn’t want to participate in these plays, it’s their right to refuse. When the government steps in to tell us to remove religion from our schools, it might even want to take Christmas out completely and change Dec. 25 to McConnell Day.

Read Next

I give University of Kentucky men’s basketball Coach John Calipari a lot of credit. Each year, he starts with a new batch of freshmen who haven’t experienced life enough to go past a mirror without looking in it. However, I think it is time for rules to be enacted that will protect the “one-and-dones” from themselves. Most of these teenagers are not ready for the NBA. And they need more than one year of college ball to mature. Instead of relying on them to make a smart decision like P.J. Washington did, we adults should have rules that assist them in going down the right path.

Certainly, you can provide names such as Lebron James who could make the transition at an early age without any problem. But, I will bet even he would agree that most of these teens aren’t ready for the NBA. Just don’t ask them. They still believe that their talent and athleticism will take them anywhere like it did in high school. But a good, productive life typically is found through sharing and teamwork, whether you are talking about basketball or marriage or jobs or whatever. Let’s make “one and done” simply “done.”